NML Mapping Think Tank

PREJ Team

JD: More gravitating toward this is b/c I have been involved in many different projects and involved in more informal learning and incorporate transmedia strategies and new technologies to teach informally history, lit, etc — but those things seem to not coincide with what is going on in t

Disconnect: Technical problems

Realistic Pitfalls

* download software is controlled by administrator

* Blessed to have a smartboard — I can download and mark all over it.  Access

* What stops people is server goes down — plan lesson, server goes down — go back to what you know works.  Don’t have time to plan, correct, teach individually with kids

Smartboard — go to Platial …collaboratively see what everyone else is doing.  Not only the teacher manipulating the place …a group of people, the collective action.

Teacher’s account connected to the smartboard but the kids are not connected to the smartboard account.

Classroom response system — graph goes up on how kids feel on a particular topic, they can choose a,b,c,d.

PJ: Move your seat, have a debate.  Now you can use the classroom response system where students can plug out immediately.

If we showed tumblr.  The list that is blocked is getting smaller. Teacher list of what using in the classroom.

Kids do research at home (b/c we have a slow server …dont’ have access, public library or stay after school) — debate / discussion happens in the classroom

Lesson making their own map / annotating a map — as long as they have an email address and their stuff will be on the site.  Map sites won’t be blocked.

There should be a list of different options — Make whatever headway you can to unblock these or perhaps some of these are available in your district.  —

• Provide options of resource tools on one specific learning concept. 
  
• CHOICE needs to be available.
  
• Low tech and high tech as part of the choices. 
  
• Sites need to be free.
  
• If a website requires a registration, need to provide another resource without registration. 
  
• Usually no registration, usually can’t save anything — so need to think about ways to share / save artifacts.
  

JD: one project we did with no funding — work around was to use free social sites …create a narrative.  But if they’re blocked on the schools, then you have to go back to paper and pencil.

Baseline: Internet access and way to project to the class (minimum)

Have to have pioneers.  Schools that can do this — tell them how it can work.  Show exemplars of how it works.

Registration process needs to be simple, easy to use.

Millions of things you can do with google earth — and it doesn’t require registration. Google Earth is so widespread — this is a pioneer.  One activity using google earth… that would be very good.

Google Earth — look at a map in a thousand different ways but really the main teachable / learning objective that the student / teacher can engage in is marking a map.  Gravitating towards a concept of exploring tagging is…

Tagging is important — give them a lesson that shows the many ways and reasons why learning this is needed.

Lots of the sites on the tumblr are about tagging maps… your community map “Day in the Life of You”

Teachers are not aware of how easy it is to register — if its a cumbersome process or not easy to navigate the site — they’re not going to use it.  Easy to get to, easy to use.

Screen grabs is an easy way to share …and you don’t have to register

If students have little technology training — no computers at home.  Middle school students had little expertise but doesn’t make it less important or necessary.

How do you use maps in your classroom?

• World geography course — year to cover the whole world.  Learning of place names.  map, atlas — color and label it.  More and more with google earth — zero in on the physical features, historical sites and with smart board — come up and manipulate it yourself.  Basic way to use google earth.  As I show more possibilities…

Baseline: At home …it will become part of formal learning.  Students are teaching teachers with technology …excited about possibilities but frustrated that I haven’t used it.  Tangible uses.

When teachers uses stations …then it’s hard to prep steams.  If there was one to one for teachers at least — they could prep all classes at the beginning of school.

Prep ahead of time (conversation about using videos in class) — United Streaming …download the whole file.  Don’t worry about bandwidth …there are sticky legal issues with that.

JD: Going back to world geography.  Names, famous locations — required in the curriculum and state test them.  Besides learning name and concept.  How do you do that?

• Randy: Maps are basic starting point.  Place (physical / cultural) Location
• PJ: Global Studies, my own way of teaching geography.  Each issue, desertification (N Africa) — teach N Africa but teach that issue.  Teach China and teach population pressures.  One story I took about …they don’t know about Exxon Valdez story, map it and then allow them to do a creative response.  They now do google image search.  Go low tech — kids would smear oil and a seal.  Artifacts, creative response — ask them the details of the story.  Take something clinical and give them an incredible story and let them react to it and then give them another layer (the issue) …they love the stories.
  
• MLK - Birmingham in the church — kids get involved, be real.  They like to get off the computers sometimes.  Sometimes its better to smear oil.
• Place …you need to smell it, feel it…
• MTV The Hills has participatory videos — streaming live online… comment on it as its happening.  Most rated comments are embedded into the video.
• Has the dream been realized? What is your dream for society? — create it using any media they wanted.  School blog to post to and could react to what happened at assembly, share their work.  We found that every single written response was shallow, “I thought that was good.” with all wrong language.

Conversation about where did the Student Techies go in school?

Do you guys think that kids today — have to have their virtual thing.  I use to have the techies — learning PPT and different systems.  Not many techies.  Kids are on their own, simplistic social networks..  TD: Don’t need as much tech …make a website.  I don’t see those kids as techies helping out with the teachers.  They’d be the experts in the school …that group of kids has disappeared.

I thought kids would be savvier …I’m getting the same thing I did in 10 years.

Now you can get on the computer, very involved games and networks to connect with.  Now they’re in those environments… they can change them, customize.  They’re creating a virtual level to play.  Tech expertise is used in different ways.  Not a need to learn how to make the computer function better.  Being a computer technician is not as glamourous.

they haven’t disappeared — they’ve gone on to applying things.

All this is user-interface stuff.

Starting a program …not build a site from scratch, plenty stuff out there to customize what’s already there.  but otherwise it’s point and click… focus more on the content.  Taking pics, writing, making videos — include maps in there too

JD: COOL EXAMPLE: taking a game of a profile - each person has a profile and you learn from them.  Historical game that has empty historical profiles — MLK to fight a constitutional battle.  The empty profile, go on a hunt to find things about MLK to update the profile and fill it, so that they can be a friend and use / work with / support the user in the game.  Students can help each other — trade cards …have you found xyz… participate and help each other.  Web-based, start to test in Long Beach in 5 school district and open up the network to use the kids.  Goal is to have kids in NY and Seattle help each other and Seattle help Florida.

Guidelines… colleague took social profile offline, doing shakespeare - -have them do a myspace profile for the  book.  About me is the real description …it was perfect.  It doesn’t have to be online, you can take the concepts of what they do online and do it low tech.

Another Idea — Big debate - should we leave iraq? when should we leave iraq?  Each student had an identity — they had to learn who their identity was? which side they were on it? know the different sides to debate.  BalancedPolitics.org  — Kids come dressed up.  Code Pink showed up.  Malaki, Bush was there… Gates was there.  Each kid had identities b/c they learned about each other and the debate began.  Went on for 3 days.  Kids had accents.  Bring a prop if they wanted to.  Alot of performance but substative - finding out who agrees.

Thinking about Facebook — what is the challenge that this administration has to have.  Populating this new debate world — they could do that kind of thing.  Give them each an identity, treasury secretary.  Kids get into this stuff b/c they act it.  And it’s something you remember… Not what the teacher told them.  Involves drama and conflict.  Really remember it.  If we do a senate proceeding /  Model UN

You could make this as a website — link to photos and other sites..

Teachers need to know that geography and mapping is not just about marking…

What strategies can we suggest to teachers that encourages students to lead the lesson / class?